Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

Wizards of the Coast has released a new playtest featuring four new "villainous" subclasses, along with two more feat paths designed to transform characters into either a lich or a death knight. Today, Wizards released a new "Villainous Options" Unearthed Arcana. The new document contains four subclasses - a Pestilence Domain Cleric, a Circle of the Titan Druid, a Hell Knight Fighter, and a Demonic Sorcerer, alongside feat paths intended to slowly transform a player character into either a lich or a death knight. While previous D&D books have brought back the concept of mini-feat trees, these villainous paths are intended to be used at every opportunity a feat can be taken.

The Pestilence Domain cleric's core ability allows it to confer exhaustion levels on opponents via use of Channel Divinity. Enemies who die while having one or more Exhaustion level can explode and inflict necrotic damage on others. The capstone ability allows the Cleric to transform into a swarm of pestilence-infused pests.

The Circle of the Titan Druid has a Wild Shape ability that transforms them into various kinds of kaiju-esque monsters, which eventually become gargantuan in size.

The Hell Knight Fighter deals extra Infernal damage that varies in type depending on the ability and eventually transforms foes into minor devils upon their death.

The Demonic Sorcerer likewise grants various kinds of sorcerer abilities Abyssal effects, culminating in the ability to summon a demon to the battlefield once per day for free.

The path feats are interesting - both culminate with a feat that can only be taken at Level 12 or higher and requires a player to have at least two other feats from the feat path. Death Knights gain a pool of Death Points that fuel various abilities, while the Lich gains a Soul Jar and eventually gains the mechanical benefits of being a lich.

The playtest is open now, with a playtest survey launching next week.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

That is the risk, the possible power-breaker combo by munchkins.

Path of the bloodsucker and therian in the future?

What is the difference between vrylokas (PC specie from 4e "Heroes of the Shadow" and dhampirs?

* "Survivor" classes weren't designed for power balance but a faster creation and players have to feel vulnerable. If Ravenloft 5.5 allowed "monster classes" then..

* What if players options for "dark" characters was for a spin-off where Vecna created a new demiplane ruled by the evil bosses? It wouldn't be gothic horror as Ravenloft but more postapocalyptic grimmdark

 

[Maxperson]

The Death Knight path being aimed at martials (per WotC's description) feels very off to me. First, it boosts STR, CON, and CHA. While STR is good for Fighters, Paladins, and Barbarians, Monks, Rangers, and Rogues are all left out. Second, all but one of the feats gives you spells (the last is a magic action). This "a", makes Barbarians like them a lot less, and "b" is fairly lame. The "martial" path doesn't really have any "martial" abilities, just magic.

It's a Death KNIGHT, not a Death Tracker or Death Sneaky Guy. It's geared towards fighters and paladins, mainly paladins as @Paul Farquhar pointed out. As for the spells, Death Knights have always had spell like abilities and the path feats are designed emulate that.

 

[Parmandur]

That’s going to be difficult to time, as we saw with BG3 tie-ins. Not allowing for delays in video game development leads to poor quality products being released.

That's why they didn't announce Warlock for most of the time they were working on it.

 

[Parmandur]

To be fair, I don't consider it a problem either, but it is for some.

It is certainly a limitation, but limitations can be opportunities to build something creatively just as much as they are barriers.

 

[Kurotowa]

It is certainly a limitation, but limitations can be opportunities to build something creatively just as much as they are barriers.

I picture it as a spectrum. At one end is modeling clay, with infinite possibilities but no direction. And the other end is an Ikea unit, where there is exactly one right way to do it. And in between you have a bucket of Lego bricks, where you're limited by the supply and model of bricks available but allowed to be creative with how you use them.

I really like a Lego brick design, but I know it's not everyone's favorite.

 

[Parmandur]

I picture it as a spectrum. At one end is modeling clay, with infinite possibilities but no direction. And the other end is an Ikea unit, where there is exactly one right way to do it. And in between you have a bucket of Lego bricks, where you're limited by the supply and model of bricks available but allowed to be creative with how you use them.

I really like a Lego brick design, but I know it's not everyone's favorite.

For player characters, I think D&D strikes a pretty solid medium: there are like 4 nice big choices (Species, Class, Subclass, Background) and some small knobs (Attributes, Feats, Skills) for individuation.

 

[Parmandur]

Responded to the survey, gave the Subclasses Green and the Feat Paths Red. Let them know in the comments that explicitly super evil options were a bad place to start with the design.

 

[Remathilis]

I voted everything grass green. Hopefully that's enough to offset someone's vote so we don't get yet another great idea sacrificed to the altar of cranky DMs who then complain how WotC takes no chances.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I voted green on most everything just advising on some tweaks like making the Titans a bit stronger offensively, making the Hell Knight require less luck.

The Lich and Death Knight paths are super cool even if not fit for every game

 

[Kurotowa]

I voted everything grass green. Hopefully that's enough to offset someone's vote so we don't get yet another great idea sacrificed to the altar of cranky DMs who then complain how WotC takes no chances.

I voted mostly green, and gave specific feedback on the yellows. "Titan Form is too squishy for the character fantasy, is there any way to sacrifice spell slots to power it up more?" "Death Knight Path is a really cool concept, but I'd really like it to have more martial focus and less spellcasting." "Lich Path is really cool, but the limitation to triggering off humanoids is too specific for a lot of campaigns, especially with the reduction on the number of monstrous humanoids in the MM."

There's some really good new concepts here, they just need some refinement still.